Warhol, Andy

Description:

Pittsburgh, 1928 - New York, 1987
102,2 x 151,1 cm, R.
"Shoes", 1980. Colour screenprint with diamond dust on Arches Aquarelle paper. Signed and numbered 58/60 in pencil on the verso.
Feldman/Schellmann, II. 257.
Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich.
Collection Monika and Horst Bülow, Leonberg, acquired there in 1982.
Andy Warhol’s "Shoes" reflects a deep fascination with surface and style, as well as with the emotional and symbolic resonance of ordinary things. In the "Diamond Dust Shoes" series of 1980 elegant women’s shoes appear in luminous turquoise, blue, and gray tones, scattered across a dark ground as if after a night out - a dance floor after a glamorous party, fleeting, sparkling, almost surreal. By using real diamond dust, fine glass particles, the shoes are literally elevated from the everyday to the precious, becoming emblems of luxury and desire.
Warhol’s bond with the shoe motif reaches back to the 1950s. As an advertising and fashion illustrator in New York he made shoes the subject of an aesthetic and poetic game; his illustrations for magazines, department stores, and designers combined decorative elegance with wry irony. He gave the shoe a personality early on, making it a bearer of stories and longings. In the large shoe paintings of the 1980s he returned to the theme in the language of Pop Art - screenprint technique, monumental formats, and the shimmering surfaces that mark his late work.
The interplay of serial construction, intense colour, and glamorous materiality makes the work a key piece of his Diamond Dust phase. The glitter recalls Broadway lights as much as the New York club scene and the windows of luxury fashion. Warhol both documented and ironically reflected this world. Shoes here are no longer mere accessories but symbols of status, seduction, consumption, and the promise of social ascent.
The present sheet is signed and numbered in pencil on the verso, number 58/60. It is in very good condition with a particularly fine, intact diamond-dust surface. In this work Warhol links the roots of his career in fashion illustration with the resplendent iconization of everyday objects that defines his late oeuvre. "Shoes" compellingly demonstrates his ability to transform surfaces and turn the banal into a glittering symbol of glamour and transience.